Left hand finger stretching?

Jazzaferri

Light wiggling of fingers....rolling the shoulders and a swinging the arms....mild exercise to limber uP, mild stretching but not pushing it to get warmed up and the blood pumping.

That is what I have come to beleive is the best way to get the body ready to play after a few decades of research and reflection on the topic.

Taking a break every once and a while and again doing some mild stretches is also beneficial. The kind of serious maximum stretching that athletes do after a workout is best saved for times when one has had a serious stretch of playing. My hands and body are more flexible now at 65 than they were at 50.

kevingcox

Tim Kliphuis shared that his main stretch and warmup was to splay his fingers, hold a couple of seconds and then relax. I believe he said he does this a few times throughout the day, like in line at the grocery store, etc. but he does it before shows before any warmup on his instrument.

Jazzaferri

That is a very good stretch for me. That and putting thumbs together one hand facing up one down and gently stretching thumb in the opposite direction the muscles are used when playing. Constant use one way without stretching shortens the muscle.

Buco

That's a good one. I do a "Namaste" stretch, holding my hands together and pushing down towards my waist.
Talking about stretching, stretched winter in this case, here's what I saw through my window this morning. Or spring got very, very confused.

Al Watsky

Emilio Pujol was a professor of guitar in Spain.
He wrote a set of volumes on guitar technique that was called the Rational School of Guitar.
In it he examines every stretching exercise imaginable.
Its in 4 volumes.
I believe the stretching exercises are in volume 2.
One that I use every day is this.
Place the four fingers of the left hand on the first second third and fourth frets of the 6th string.
Hold the first finger on the first fret and sequentially move fingers 2-3-4 to the second third and fourth frets of the 5th string.
Continue to hold the first finger on the first fret of the 6th string as you continue the exercise with fingers two three and four to the 4th ,3rd ,2nd and first strings , all while holding the first finger on the first fret of the 6th string.
Next place the fingers again on the 6th string and hold the second finger on F# , hold the second finger in position as you place fingers one, three and four on the corresponding frets of the 5th string. Continue with the 4th 3rd 2nd and 1st strings while holding the second finger on F#.
Next place the 3rd finger of the right hand on the third fret of the 6th string and place the 1st 2nd and 4th strings on the 5th string, continue up the strings to the 1st string.
Next the 4th finger and etc.
As you can see this stretches each finger .
When you complete the sequence on the 6th string begin again on the first string.
Hold the first finger on F on the first fret of the high E string and place fingers 2 3 4 on the second string , then the third and so on.
Then place the second finger on the second fret of the first string and proceed to complete the sequence using fingers 1 3 and 4.
And so on.
This will stretch all the fingers in the first position and is very effective for building strength and flexibility.
There are many more such exercises in Pujol's volumes.

Buco

Oooh yeah, can't wait to try this one, thanks Al. There was a similar one mentioned on the forum that's coming from Stefan Wrembel.

Might be worth mentioning; start with your first finger on first fret 6th string. Continue with fingers 2 3 4 on frets 2 3 4 but keep pressing the previous frets. Move to the 5th string 1st fret but don't lift off any fingers from the 6th string until it's time for their turn. Continue like this to high E, move up the fret and start the same thing from high E string down to low E. Play quarter notes, 50bpm.
Supposed to be a good strength builder.
I do it pretty often.

Jazzaferri

Great info Al. Thanks for posting

Al Watsky

Thank Pujol.
Stefan knows it from Pujol too I have no doubt.
In some ways Emilio was the father of structured guitar pedagogy .
He was a student of Taregga .

Buco

I now wonder if I misinterpreted the description and it's the same exercise that Stefan is teaching.
They are both useful either way.
Holding your pinky on the 4th fret low E and reaching down with your ring finger on the 3rd fret high E is especially challenging.

klaatu

Here's another I just learned from my classical guitar teacher (only the third lesson, I'm really new at this). I find this pretty challenging on the shorter scale classical guitar (650mm), even more so on the gypsy long scale.

Starting with your index finger at C on the 3rd fret of the 5th string, play a C chromatic scale over two octaves, using all four fingers and keeping each finger in place as the subsequent fingers are pressed down. When you move to each new string, keep fingers 2-4 in place on the previous string until the index finger has moved to the next note on the next string, then release 2-4 and continue. The sequence is: 5th string: C - D#, 4th E - G, 3rd G# - B, then slide your index finger to C for C = D#, 2nd E - G, 1st G# - B and slide your pinky to C.

Coming back down, you finger the notes individually but try to maintain good finger position. The note sequence changes because you only play four notes on the 1st string coming down. 1st string C - A, 2nd G# - F, 3rd E - C#, then slide the pinky to C for C - A, fourth G# - F and second E - C#, tand slide the index finger from C# to C.

This is similar too the one Buco describes above, except that the full chromatic scale requires a greater stretch in moving from string to string when ascending.

BTW, I can't do it cleanly yet. Ouch!